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Nevada Pre-Kindergarten Standards

Reviewed/Updated March 2026

Overview

The Nevada Pre-Kindergarten Standards, Revised 2023 are the framework that provides guidance to early childhood educators regarding the developmental milestones that children should achieve by the end of their pre-kindergarten year. The pre-K standards have many uses and impact Nevada’s youngest children. From supporting teachers writing Individualized Education Plans to guiding leaders responsible for planning and delivering early childhood education programs, the standards provide indicators, examples of what a child may do, and supportive practices a practitioner may implement in the learning environment. Statewide early childhood educators rely on the pre-K standards to ensure they are providing quality instruction.

The Standards support play-based classroom environments, early childhood curriculum, and instruction in all early childhood classrooms and programs serving pre-kindergarten children across the state, including childcare centers, family childcare homes, Head Start, preschools, school district pre-kindergarten programs, and more.

Request a Hard Copy of the Revised Standards
Please contact OSRLE@doe.nv.gov for ADA assistance

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary of the Nevada Pre-Kindergarten Standards, Revised 2023 provides a description of the following:

  • Purpose of the Pre-Kindergarten Standards
  • Pre-Kindergarten Standards Domains and Indicators
  • Historic Timeline of the Nevada Pre-Kindergarten Standards & K-12 Alignment
  • 2023 Revision Process
  • Comparison of 2023 Revision to 2010 Revision (What’s changed?)
  • Pre-Kindergarten Standards Roll-Out, Dissemination, Professional Development, and Training

Alignment to Nevada Academic Content Standards

The Standards are vertically aligned with Nevada’s K-12 Academic Content Standards (Nevada Department of Education, n.d.) for kindergarten as well as with the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (Office of Head Start, n.d.). In anticipation of future updates and revisions to these standards, and with a commitment to consistently provide Nevada’s early educators with the most up-to-date information, the alignment charts you may be familiar with have been moved out of this document. The Nevada Department of Education is in the process of creating the early learning standards alignment chart.

Domains and Indicators:

The Standards are organized in eight* domains and include indicators of children’s early learning and development, examples of how children might demonstrate each indicator, and supportive practices for teachers and practitioners.

  1. Approaches to Learning
  2. *Social Emotional
  3. Social Studies
  4. Health, Safety, and Physical Development
  5. Language and Early Literacy
  6. Science
  7. Technology
  8. Creative Expression
  9. Mathematics

*Social Emotional Standards were redeveloped in 2025 to align with the widely recognized Collaborative for Academic and Social Emotional Learning (CASEL) Framework and the K-12 NV SEL standards. For this reason, they are currently available in a separate document but should be utilized in conjunction with other pre-K domains as Social Emotional is an essential domain of early learning to be considered and implemented in all early childhood settings.

The 2023 Standards incorporate two new domains: Approaches to Learning and Technology. These domains have been added to lay foundations for critical skills as young children develop their own approaches to learning, and in acknowledgement of the central role that technology plays in modern life, information-gathering, problem-solving, and communication skills.

Using the Pre-Kindergarten Standards to Guide Practice: The How-to Guides

As an educator or program leader serving four- to five-year-old children, you may wonder, how can I use the Pre-Kindergarten Standards in my practice? Two resources are available to help you use the Pre-Kindergarten Standards to reflect, plan, and implement practices to support children’s learning and development across the nine domains, a How-to Guide for Educators and a How-to Guide for Leaders. Each guide includes an introduction to using the guide, examples and reflection questions in four areas of practice, and a planning and reflection tool.

Using the Pre-Kindergarten Standards to Guide Practice: A How-to Guide for Educators

Using the Pre-Kindergarten Standards to Guide Practice: A How-to Guide for Leaders

Crosswalk Between Nevada Pre-Kindergarten Standards and Nevada Kindergarten Academic Content Standards

What is the Crosswalk?

The Crosswalk is an alignment tool that shows how the skills and concepts children develop in Pre-K connect directly to what they are expected to know and do in kindergarten. It maps the Nevada Pre-Kindergarten Standards to the Nevada Kindergarten Academic Content Standards across nine key domains, including:

  • Approaches to Learning
  • Social Emotional
  • Social Studies
  • Health, Safety, and Physical Development
  • Language and Early Literacy
  • Science
  • Technology
  • Creative Expression
  • Mathematics

How educators can use it:

  • Plan lessons and play-based experiences that intentionally build on expectations across grades.
  • Identify what children already know, what to strengthen next, and how to scaffold learning.
  • Create shared language across grade levels for smoother transitions and stronger alignment.